Lag on hub2 strings?

[smeighan]

true but if you have a channel in the 2nd, or 3rd universes, the ssc needs to be programmed with the smart string utility with a channel between 1 and 4096 with the string not exceeding channel 4096

This apparently is not true. Used the ssc's utility and programmed channels 4097. To 11,000. Everything works correctly.

It would be a one line change to the utility to just modulo the channel entered by the user with 4096. Now 4097 willbe a 1, 8193 will also be a 1.  Maybe the ssc's utility has a modulo operation in it already?

[keitha43]

Perhaps RJ needs to address this. I also heard the ssc needs to be channels 1-4096 only.

[tbone321]

The actual address of the SCC must be between 1 and 4096 because that is all that the data streem will allow for.  RJ may have made a change to the utility to "make it easier" for people to set the start channel in a multi-universe setup using the same channel number that the sequencer would use instead of the user figuring out the math to set the controller  to the correct address for the proper universe. 

[lorajoslyn]

I had erroneously programmed my sscs >4096, and they did work, and with the same lag.  Re-programmed to the <4096, and no real change, which was a bit odd.

Did change out pixelnet output port, no difference.
I will try to have the input into hub 2 first - hadn't tried that. WIll try that after show is completed tonight.
Did the ramp down thing on a spare channel (channel 99, so i think that's ok) and no change on the lag for those strings. Did i have to alternate up and downs, or anything specific?

I was going to try and swap different strands on different hubs on Saturday morning, but that will take a bit more maneuvering than i can do while a show is running/people watching.   

[smeighan]

did you make sure you have strings in the first universe? This is what fixed my lag.

It was very severe.

My first universe was

1-496 empty
497 to 4000 and something full of pixels = severe lag

changed it
1-384 a single rgb string
497 to 4000 something = no lag.

the channels being reprogrammed did nothing to fix the lag i was seeing.

Matt mentioned that he knows what this is in x Lights and he would work on a fix. That was late November. RJ mentioned somewhere about being sure the first universe has strings on it.

i am not sure how many i really needed, i just added one string and the problem got solved.

[zwiller]

The SSC utility "will" allow programming over 4096 but will shift by 6 channels (and who know what else).  At least that's what it did for me.  That's when I remembered not to use it over 4096. 

[lorajoslyn]

My first string is at channel 101 in universe 1, hub 1.  So, I have my 5 LEs and my 4 RGB floods on Channels 1 -96.   used Channel 99 for my ramp downs.
The rest of Hub 1 has SS 1-10.  Hub 2 has SS 11-14 (rest of mega tree) and SS 15-18 (4 arches)

[cBell]

I experienced similar lag on the 2nd hub during setup using xLights.  When I used Vixen it went away, so I haven't gone back to xLights to try and figure out what was going on.  Reading about putting channels in the first 512 fixing the problem, it got me thinking.  I have about 300 channels in the first universe of the first hub, but the 2nd hub does not have anything in first 512 channels.  Could it be possible that there needs to be activity in the first 512 channels of each hub?

[lorajoslyn]

Hmmm... I think you might be getting somewhere... I DID notice that when I had my arches on only (so, later strands on Hub #2), the lag was HUGE.  It seemed to be reduced when I had my mega tree on AND the arches (lots of hub 1 going with channels <512 along with hub 2 activity at the <512 mark).

I'll see if i can use a fake channel early on for Hub #2 to verify this. 

[frankr]

I have a total of four hubs in my setup. I noticed that the furthest hub in the chain was experiencing a very similar lag to what you are describing.  I switched out the first universe in my xlights setup to use a pixelnet dongle (this hub was using universe 1) and everything was fine after that.

Interestingly I am now never sending any data on the first 8 universes on the etherdongle and I have no lag in my show whatsoever.

I would suspect that you may be having issues with the signal quality getting to your second hub.  If you have not tried using the cable between the etherdongle and hub 1 to drive hub 2 I would recommend starting there.  If that is not working then I would start looking at the software side of things.  You may also try using a different cat 5 between the hubs in case you just have a bad connection.

If you have a pixelnet dongle you may try the method I used as well...  I did not have to change anything in my sequences to make this solution work. I just changed my xLights network setup.

Frank

[sielbear]

Interesting...  What's the propagation delay in going from 1 hub to a second hub via the regeneration?  I bet it's minimal...

[frankr]

My uneducated guess from what I saw was more that this is a signal integrity issue rather than a data delay issue.  Certain patterns, at least for me, did not show this behavior while others did.

Frank

[smeighan]

My uneducated guess from what I saw was more that this is a signal integrity issue rather than a data delay issue.  Certain patterns, at least for me, did not show this behavior while others did.

Frank

My setup

Laptop+Etherdongle => 100' pixelnet => First Hub => 6' => Second Hub => 50' => 3rd hub

my severe lag was in the first hub, 2nd and 3rd seemed ok.
After adding channels 1-384 in first hub, my lag disappeared.

[lorajoslyn]

I have similar specs as smeighan - ~100' to the first hub, ~4' to the second hub.

I ended up adding a channel on the 2nd hub with tons of ramp downs (<channel 512)  and my lag on the rest of the mega tree went down significantly (not perfect, but acceptable now).

I did swap out the cable between the 2 hubs, no effect.  At this point, I think I'll be leaving this for the rest of the season, since its within my personal toleration range. 

Smeighan, I'm glad to see you also resolved it, even with 3 hubs.  Obviously I'm planning on adding more hubs next year, so that was a concern as well. 

[JonB256]

Is lag only noticed with Active hubs? or has anyone had it with Passive hubs (16 port or 4 port)?